Case study 1: Types of Memory

What you remember reveals the kind of person you are...

Names	I am good at remembering people’s names.	I am more likely to remember someone’s face than their name.
Events	I remember past events in great detail.	I remember past events in general terms.
Prices	I can remember the exact amount of money I paid for just about everything I’ve ever bought.	I rarely remember the exact price I paid for things.

Based on your answers above, check (P) the words that describe your personality.

0 creative

0 hardworking

0 fun-loving

0 open-minded

0 happy-go-lucky

0 soft-spoken

0 honest

0 warm-hearted

0 interested in other people

0 responsible

0 well-informed

0 success-oriented

0 comfort-loving

Forgetfulness and Types of Memories

How Forgetful can a Person be?

Sarah Miller is an average college student, now enrolled in business management, who has been having trouble with course examinations in management and English. She has failed a couple of quizzes and exams because she could not concentrate on what she was being asked. It looks like her mind goes blank every time she tries to remember what she crammed the night before her evaluations. She started noticing that her memory started failing for two months now, as it sometimes happened when she was in high school. And this situation is, according to her, blowing out of proportion, much more than when she was in high school. Besides, she feels helpless and wants to ask her school counselor for some advice on how to improve her memory skills.

Although Sarah considers herself someone with a good memory, she has forgotten accounting formulas for exercises done at home or in class. In her English grammar class, she sometimes forgets the syntactical formulas explained in class. “What’s happening with my memory?” she has asked herself several times, but finds herself puzzled by the situation. “Am I getting some sort of Alzheimer or something that is sending my memory down the drain?” Sarah feels intense anxiety with this inexplicable problem she is undergoing now.

She doesn’t want anyone to know that she has some trouble remembering things, so what she did last night was to go on line and took a short-term memory quiz to somehow diagnose what is happening to her.

This is the page she visited. Take a glance at the QUIZ here:

https://brainfall.com/quizzes/how-good-is-your-memory/

After answering the questions and seeing her results, she started feeling really worried because she has some of the “symptoms” of memory loss such as:

· Not knowing where her house door keys are

· Forgetting whether she had turned off the kitchen lights or locking the front door

· Leaving behind important stuff for her classes at the university such as assignments or books

· Forgetting to call back college partners or forgetting phone numbers or her bank card’s PIN

· Remembering appointments to study at the very last minute

· And remembering things at night right before she goes to sleep (??)

In addition to taking the memory test above, she also visited this other Website and finds that she lacks several of the causes mentioned on it:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003257.htm

She has no trouble with any of these things, and that makes her wonder what is really happening to her:

· No illicit drug consumption, just acetaminophen when she has a headache

· No brain-related maladies

· No prescriptions to follow

· No accidents involving her head

Based on the information, and imagining you are the college counselor or Sarah’s English teacher, whom she talk to this morning, how would you answer these questions:

1. What kind of memory is being affected in Sarah’s case? Her long-term memory or her short-term memory?

2. Is her working memory being affected? Explain why or why not.

3. Are her memory loss “symptoms,” –as she called them-, indications that she is losing her memory? Justify why or why not? (See list above.)

4. How can you explain that she gets to remember things just before she goes to sleep?

5. Could she be suffering from some sort of Alzheimer disorder? Why or why not?

6. Is cramming for tests of any help for Sarah? What does this reveal about her studying habits?

Conclusion

Now that you have considered the answers to these questions and listened to your group partners, what seems to be the best action plan to try to restore Sarah’s memory? Should she look for medical assistance? Should she work on memory-enhancing exercises to see what happens in the future?

If you are interested in this subject, it is suggested that you get to read the following short articles.

Do we really forget?

http://www.psychologistworld.com/memory/forgetting.php

How human memory works

UPLOAD THE ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS ON THE FOLLOWING MICROSOFT FORMS DOC

CLICK HERE

Case Study 4: Non Verbal Communication

Nonverbal Communication: Part 2

Nonverbal Communication:

Part 2

In order to help Ron Madison in a more effective way, you are now requested to watch the following video with Body Language Expert, Judy James, who is currently working for Videojug.com.

Ms. James will explain to you, by using examples in context, 6 tips to know if a woman is interested in a guy or not. As you can see, this information is vital to shape up an Action Plan for Ron's case.

The key features Judy James will describe are as follows:

1. The First Glance

2. Subconscious Mirroring

3. Change in Posture

4. Self Grooming Gestures

5. Face Softening

6. Touching

After listening to her explanation and exemplification of each feature, define each term in your own words and the particulars involved in each of the seven phases or steps describe in the video.

Make quick notes on your notebook, and be ready to discuss each step in Judy James' explanation with your classmates in class. Jot down as much information you consider important to complete this task and the first part of this case.

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-can-i-tell-if-she-is-attracted-to-me

Nonverbal Communication: Part 1

Ron Madison's Case

Ron Madison, a 30-year-old businessman in tourism is going through a phase in his life where he cannot start a new real relationship with a girl friend. He is considering himself an “unlucky” man with women because although he meets lots of women in his field of work and from various parts of the world, he cannot start with a new date.

Although Ron is a very sociable person and is very well-accepted in several social circles, he is becoming more and more unsure whether he is liked by women or not. Ron did have several girlfriends before, and he broke up his last girlfriend about eight months ago. For the past six months he has been attending family and friends’ parties, social and ethnic gatherings, and business conferences with multi-cultural participants, and every time that he tries to take someone out on a date, he is told that “he seems to be a very nice guy, but she is not interested in a relationship now.” What is actually happening with him? Is he approaching women in the wrong way?

As part of a psychology class you are now taking at the university, you were assigned Ron’s case to give him a hand in understanding how women act and react when being interested in men and when being asked by men.

Your professor has assigned you the introduction to a chapter on “body language” or “nonverbal communication” to set the ground for your research project intending to help Ron. Your psychology professor highlighted the following information for you:

How do human beings communicate? To answer this rather simple question, one has to explore, on the one hand, verbal communication, and on the other hand, its nonverbal counterpart. Humans use both types for communicating ideas, thoughts, feelings, and desires. Communication is not just a matter of “words;” it is also related to gestures and postures.

As verbal communication differs from culture to culture, so it does happen with nonverbal communication. What you may find is similarities in gestures and their corresponding meanings in two different cultures, but in the end, their use of this nonverbal way of communicating may turn very different. It gets to differ from culture to culture because the speakers are the one who ascribe meaning to their facial expressions, body and hands movements, distribution of space when talking to friends and strangers, etc. Not being part of that culture means that one can misunderstand what people mean.

Can you tell what people mean or feel by seeing how they move? You can often tell if people are honest or dishonest when you shake hands with them by the way the hold your hand. At times you know when someone is telling you a lie just by watching their nonverbal communication such as their eye contact. Oftentimes you can infer what a person is feeling just by paying attention to the way the person’s eye glow. Sadness and despair are easily recognizable.

To sum up, it can be stated that nonverbal communication is somehow easier to understand how it is used in a particular culture. It can be rather difficult to be able to comprehend nonverbal communication in alien or known cultures if one does not know how to interpret “body movements.”

Based on Ron’s case antecedents, let’s answer the following questions.

1. What is actually happening to Ron Madison? Is he really having a difficult problem? Or is he diverting his attention to something that is not the root of the problem?

2. Is his lack of understanding of nonverbal communication part of the problem? If so, how? Why is it that he was not affected by this particular situation before?

3. Is being sociable a synonym of liked? If not, explain what the difference is.

4. Is Ron Madison reacting properly in these “unlucky” situations? Is Ron approaching the wrong women or approaching them in the wrong way?

5. With the use of his gestures and postures, is Ron sending the wrong message to women when dealing with women from a different culture? Explain your point of view.

Remember that your task is to help Ron to better understand what is now happening in his life. And as part of your assignment for this psychology class in college, you are requested to complete the following chart to find a way out for Ron’s “love” problem.

If you want to explore the subject of Nonverbal Communication a bit more, it is advisable that you read the information on the following sites:

1. Nonverbal Communication Skills: The Power of Nonverbal Communication and body language

Click here!

2. Test your own ability to "read" samples of nonverbal communication.

Click here!

3. Six ways to improve your nonverbal communications.

Click here!

Case study 2: The Meaning of being lucky

Does Luck Really Exist?

Keith was a normal guy with an average life and 9 to 5 jobs. He seems to believe that something is going wrong with his life. Everything that he has done lately has had a bad ending for him.

Last week he broke up with his girlfriend, Amanda. Although they had been together for over a year, Amanda told him repeatedly that there were some “bad vibes” around him and that they’d better take different paths for a while. She didn’t want to be “contaminated” with his bad luck.

Keith has kept those words in his mind for a while and has attributed several strange happenings in his life to his “bad vibes:”

1. he lost his gold watch when he went clubbing about a week ago; he doesn’t know how he lost it.

2. He has gotten to work late every day for two weeks due to traffic jams. His boss is not happy with this behavior although he is a good worker.

3. He went gambling with some co-workers, and he was the only one who lost every dime that night.

4. His grades in night school are getting worse and worse. He doesn’t feel like studying and has neglected doing his homework and projects.

“What is happening with my life?” that’s what he is asking himself every minute of the day. “Is bad luck watching every step of my way?” “If you don’t do anything with your life to stop this bad luck, everything will go down the drain!” said to Amanda before she left.

Keith has made up his mind and decided to visit a fortune-teller in his town and a counselor in the company he is working for. He is in real need of help because he believes that his life is going nowhere. And all of this is happening after he read this print-out that Amanda sent him this morning.

What should Keith do?

If you were his friend and had been told about his intentions of visiting the fortune-teller and the office counselor, what would you tell him to do?

But before you voice your opinion on his “bad luck,” please answer the following questions:

1) How would you define what luck is? Can we label people as “lucky” or “unlucky?” Why or why not?

2) Are all Keith’s latest happenings attributable to his bad luck? How can you explain what has happened to him in regards to:

a. His gold watch’s loss?

b. His lateness for work?

c. His losses at the casino?

d. His broken relationship with Amanda?

e. His bad grades in school?

3) Do any of Keith’s “bad moments of no luck” have a life history? Is this a way to explain his “lack of luck?” Explain your answer.

4) What do you think of the law of probability? Can it explain what happens in any person’s life when talking about bad luck?

5) Do you believe in lucky strikes? Or these moments of extreme “luckiness” are just a matter of perspective? Is being lucky a state of mind? Justify your answers.

6) How much does superstition play in understanding “luck?” Does Keith look like a superstitious person? Explain your answers, please.

Our Final Forethought

Now that you have considered the answers to these questions and listened to your group partners, what seems to be the best solution for Keith? Should he go to the fortune-teller’s office for some advice? Does he better need the assistance of the office counselor? Or should he find help some other place?

Complete your analysis of Keith's case with the following tool:

Dowload your analysis tool over here!

Additional Readings to Consider

Murphy's Laws Site:

http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html

Does Luck Exist? Is it a State of Mind?

http://www.neurope.eu/articles/Does-Luck-exist-or-Is-it-a-state-of-mind/82805.php

Getting Lucky: Does Luck Truly Exist?

http://www.barsmart.com/columns.cfm?cid=436409B1-DE4A-6130-5534139D13607F1F